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Politics : I Will Continue to Continue, to Pretend.... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (35369)	10/22/2010 10:21:05 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

Fear of flying By Scott Power Line Jim Geraghty's Twitter announcement made me laugh: <<< When I'm on a plane, If I see people who are in NPR garb, I get worried & nervous. Because they probably won't shut up the whole flight. >>> Talk about fear of flying! .

To: Sully- who wrote (35369)	10/22/2010 10:30:51 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

A vicious cycle By Paul Power Line National Review Online had an email exchange with NPR regarding the sacking of Juan Williams. Asked what exactly Williams said that NPR deemed inappropriate, Anna Christopher, NPR's senior manager of media relations, wrote: "We aren't going to get into a back and forth over semantics. The comment violated our ethics guidelines, and offended many in doing so" (emphasis added). The last phrase caught my eye. I assume that NPR's audience consists primarily of leftists (I know few non-leftists who listen to it these days). Thus, many audience members possess sensibilities not unlike those of Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg. Williams' comments offended those sensibilities. NPR cannot afford to offend its base very much. So even if its senior decision-makers did not regard Williams' comments, coupled with those he has made in the past, as a firing offense, letting him go was the smart move. I take no position on what the decision would have been if the decision-makers were not constrained by their lefty audience. But I wouldn't be surprised if, by and large, their sensibilities mirror those of the audience. After all, how did NPR end up with that audience? UPDATE: Vivian Schiller, the CEO of NPR, told an audience at the Atlanta Press Club that Williams should have kept his opinions between himself and "his psychiatrist or publicist." Schiller later apologized. However, it seems clear that her contempt for the substance of Williiams' opinions was a factor in her decision to sack him. This undercuts the official NPR line, set forth in an email from Schiller to NPR's member stations, that Williams was fired not for the opinions he expressed, but because NPR standards require that its news analysts not express opinions at all. NPR's official line was already laughable. Nina Totenberg, NPR's longtime legal reporter, appears weekly on a show called Inside Washington. She expresses opinions, if that's not too lofty a word for them, almost non-stop. .

To: Sully- who wrote (35369)	10/22/2010 10:37:44 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

Boehner: Why Are We Funding a Left-Wing Network? Robert Costa The Corner House GOP Leader John Boehner comments exclusively on the Juan Williams firing to National Review Online: “We need to face facts -- our government is broke," Boehner tells us. "Washington is borrowing 37 cents of every dollar it spends from our kids and grandkids. Given that, I think it’s reasonable to ask why Congress is spending taxpayers’ money to support a left-wing radio network -- and in the wake of Juan Williams’ firing, it’s clearer than ever that’s what NPR is.” .

To: Sully- who wrote (35369)	10/22/2010 10:40:16 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

The Sacking of Juan Williams, Explained Kathryn Jean Lopez The Corner An American friend in Europe e-mails: <<< "Do you think Obama's theory that people tend to behave irrationally when they're scared and worried might explain the decision of NPR to sack Juan Williams?" >>> .

To: Sully- who wrote (35369)	10/24/2010 1:02:18 AM
From: Sully-	1 Recommendation Respond to of 35834

CRS: Public Broadcasting gets 15 percent of its funds from the taxpayer By: David Freddoso Online Opinion Editor 10/22/10 5:05 PM EDT At the request of Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., the non-partisan Congressional Research Service has produced a short report on how much NPR and PBS together receive from the taxpayer via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The answer for the current fiscal year (2011) is $430 million. Federal funds make up about 13.7 percent of the revenue from public broadcasting. By comparison, about 24.4 percent comes from “viewers/listeners like you,” with the remainder coming from business and foundation grants. In the news release announcing this report, DeMint hardly hides his contempt for NPR’s recent decision to fire Juan Williams. But it is much more difficult to argue with the notion that government-funded journalism is an expensive anachronism: <<< “We can’t keep borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars from China each year to fund public radio and public TV when there are so many choices already in the market for news and entertainment. If CPB is defunded, taxpayers will save billions. This is just one of the many cuts Congress should make next year. >>> Just as relevant, perhaps, are the facts that there are surely enough big foundations and George Soroses in the world to keep Sesame Street on the air, and that NPR executives might be paid pretty well for quasi-government employment. Read more at the Washington Examiner: washingtonexaminer.com